By: Laura Conigliaro, ESG Reporting Manager at Low Carbon

The risk to the world from damage to our natural environment is enormous.

Nature has intrinsic value for many who choose to protect it. But thinking we have a choice in the matter misses a key point: that, as first coined by the UK Dasgupta Review, we – our economies, our societies – are embedded in nature, not external to it. 

Nature, a shorthand for natural capital – the world’s stocks of natural assets, including soil, water, all living things and their biodiversity – supports more than half of global GDP, with recent studies reviewed by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute putting the cost of nature loss in the trillions of dollars by the 2030s.

This is what makes the loss and degradation of the natural world what is called a systemic risk – its consequences are so large, so interconnected that its impacts extend far beyond one sector or geography. All companies, even the providers of climate solutions like renewable energy, will face these risks – or the opportunities that come with avoiding them.   

It is essential to take action. But to be effective, action must be informed and directed by how businesses materially impact and depend on nature – including in our own work to make a defining contribution to the historic effort to power the world with renewable energy. That is why Low Carbon has decided to become an Early Adopter of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

The TNFD Recommendations are the leading best practice standard for businesses to explore, disclose, and provide transparency on their nature-related risks and opportunities, building the basis for effective action.

By becoming an Early Adopter, these disclosures can deepen our understanding of how we can take effective action for nature through our sustainability themes to minimise impacts and to restore and enhance nature’s biodiversity across our projects and business operations.

Our mission creates long-term benefit for people and the planet. But to create lasting impact, we must build at scale and that can mean we affect the nature on a local scale directly at the project site, and indirectly in the places touched by our supply chains.

We have started our journey as a TNFD Early Adopter by mapping nature-related dependencies and impacts across solar and onshore wind technologies and intend to publish our first TNFD Report as part of the same reporting package for our 2025 financial outcomes. As trust is a vital component of the climate fight, we report annually on our goals and our business with transparency – this is core to who we are.

We are delighted to be joined in this journey by others who share this commitment to taking effective action for nature. As announced at the World Economic Forum Davos Conference, TNFD’s Early Adopters represent $ 4 trillion in market capitalisation and include more than 100 financial institutions across banks and insurers, as well as asset owners and managers representing $ 14 trillion.

We live at a time where we know what we need to do to fight climate change and reverse biodiversity loss. Humanity now grasps an extraordinary understanding of the planet, how it functions, and how its habitats and ecosystems are being affected – so much so that our present era is called the ‘Anthropocene,’ citing humanity’s dominant influence on climate and the environment.

With influence comes the power to bring change and we can make choices that influence climate and nature for the better, and at the same time build a thriving economy.

Becoming an Early Adopter of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures isa reflection of our fundamental ethos to balance the needs of the environment and society.

The hard work of delivery begins now.